Welcome to F.A.T. Lab

The Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab is an organization dedicated to enriching the public domain through the research and development of technologies and media. Release early, often and with rap music. This is Notorious R&D.

Saw this on boingboing and made me think it might be a nice FAT/GRL project kind of in the vein of POV Cam – tools for graffiti writers/activists to stay anonymous in the city. This one uses a super bright IR LED array to overwhelm the CCD of the camera. Looks super dorky but the same principle could be applied to under the peak of a baseball cap or through the front of the mesh.

Michael Naimark takes the laser approach, describing in his paper different ways to setup lasers to target a camera. I especially like the idea of cheap laser pointers on mini camera tripods to fix the laser on the target and then just leave it there until the battery runs out. Could also be combined with the soon to be released GRLv powerthief as a way to have it everlasting!

For embedded systems Infra Red Lasers might be a dope solution. The laser would not be visible to the human eye so it would make finding the source quite difficult – yet it would have the same effect on the camera. They can be made quite easily – it is just a matter of removing the IR blocking filter from the laser pointer and replacing it with some Kodak Wratten 87C (or developed film). Anyway thought I would get some ideas going. Lets make some 2008 era, James Bond worthy tools!